Open Government Data Initiatives: Open by Default or Publishing with Purpose (original) (raw)
Related papers
Open government data: critical information management perspectives
Records Management Journal
Open government data and access to public sector information is commonplace, yet little attention has focused on the essential roles and responsibilities in practice of the information and records management professionals, who enable public authorities to deliver open data to citizens. The article considers the perspectives of open government and information practitioners in England on the procedural and policy implications of open data, across local public authorities. Design/methodology/approach Using four case studies from different parts of the public sector in England (local government, higher education, National Health Service (NHS) and hospital trust), the research involved Masters level students in the data collection and analysis, alongside academics, thus enhancing the learning experience of students. Findings There was little consistency in the location of responsibility for open government data policy, the range of job roles involved, or the organizational structures, policy and guidance in place to deliver this function. While this may reflect the organizational differences and professional concerns, it makes it difficult to share best practice. Central government policy encourages public bodies to make their data available for re-use. However, local practice is very variable, and perhaps understandably responds more to local organizational strategic and resource priorities. A lack of common metadata standards for open data, different choices about which data to open, problems of data redundancy, inconsistency and data integrity and a wide variety of views on the corporate and public benefits of open data. Research limitations/implications The research is limited to England and to non-national public bodies and only draws data from a small number of case studies. Originality/value The research contributes to the debate about emerging issues around the complexities of open government data and its public benefits, contributing to the discussions around technology-enabled approaches to citizen engagement and governance. It offers new insights into the interaction between open data and public policy objectives, drawing on the experience of local public sectors in England.
The Roles Of Governments In The Open Data Ecosystem
2019
, 2013). The motivations to the use of open government data have been attracting les attention than those of providing them. This situation becomes more pronounced when approaching the use of OGD by the government and public organizations, even if the audience of OGD includes government employees (Smith & Sandberg, 2018; Davies, 2010). Studies have been demonstrated that the main interesting subjects in OGD are professionals and citizens (Heise & Naumann, 2012), focusing respectively on the development of innovation based on OGD and its transparency and accountability. However, the use of OGD by the public sector is not explicit in the literature. OGD is open to both the public and the private sectors (Jetzek, Avital e Bjorn-Andersen, 2014). Consequently, it makes sense that public organizations also use OGD (from other OGD public providers) in decision-making and innovation, as well as that the literature covers this topic. Studies by Vieira and Alvaro (2018), Zhu (2017), Léveillé and Timms (2015), and Parycek, Höcht, and Ginner (2014) investigate users of OGD with multiple stakeholders, including government. However, the literature about the specific use of OGD by the government is not common. The use of OGD by government needs more attention than just the data disclosure because the government has an essential response to create public value (Ruijer et al., 2017; Pereira et al., 2017). Governments can use OGD to improve public services, decisionmaking, and define and monitor public policies implementation (Gascó-Hernández et al., 2018; Susha, Grönlund & Janssen, 2015). Public organizations need to pay special attention to improve cooperation between government organizations and stakeholders involved in producing useful OGD (Yang, Lo & Shiang, 2015). Based on the aspects discussed, this paper aims to discuss the twofold role of government in the open government data ecosystem (provider or user). This article is organized in five sections. In this section, the motivations for the study are presented, and the research problem and objectives are defined. Section 2 discusses the theoretical elements guiding the study. Section 3 describes the operationalization of the study, and section 4 presents the data analysis. The concluding remarks are set forth in Section 5. 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Open Data (OD) is the one that is free for use, without copyright restrictions, available for anyone, and machine processable (Zhang, Hua & Yuan, 2018). Open Government Data (OGD) is the OD that comes from public sector (Saxena, 2017). Around the world, governments enable open data and create expectations to transform the data into social benefits, when data generate knowledge or ideas to create public value (Ruijer et al., 2017). OGD can improve open government (Yang & Wu, 2016) because data disclosure creates a set of public sector information useful for all stakeholders, including the government itself (Galiotou & Fragkou, 2013; Linders, 2013; O'Riain et al. 2012). The information obtained from OGD can produce knowledge or ideas to be used in initiatives aiming to increase public value, which can benefit all stakeholders (Lourenço, 2015). The effective use of OGD depends on how data are disclosed and also the objective of using them (Attard et al., 2015). Transparency itself is not the only objective of OGD, which is relative to the data usefulness and demands strategic decisions before its disclosure (Dawes,
Open Government Data in Practice: Stakeholder Attitudes and Behaviours Towards Open Data Initiatives
Open Data in Practice, 2019
The vision encoded into the open data movement is about creating transparency around the inner workings of government departments and creating economic benefit underpinned by methods used to transcribe and curate data for the purpose of re-use by third parties. While this vision is one that champions that all government data should be open by default unless there is good reason to, yet this vision remains partially released. Despite the barriers to accessing government data have been falling there is still a wall standing between open data values and its embodied practice. For this wall to begin to be dismantled, we need to examine how open data practices is incentivised and rewarded and what conceptions of data openness are given priority in the design of government policies and programs. Very few studies (except: Ruijer et al., 2018) have examined open data through a practice lens, opting for in favour studies of technical and data quality/format barriers. In this research we contribute to this narrow literature by adding an ethnographic and observational perspective on the study of situated open data practice based on action-based methods where public servant, citizens and others actively collaborate to solve problems using open data platforms under observed conditions. In this research, we pick up on what Sieber and Johnson (2015) call ‘data over the wall’, approach to managing open government data programs where governments publish their data via a portal and where interaction and participation with citizens is limited. However, in order to advance the goals of open government it is important to further reflect on the possibilities of open government data usage and not simply view publishing open government data as an end point (Sieber and Johnson, 2015 cited in Ruijer et al., 2018: 4). For most working in open data, the currency of data “openness” is measured by the number of datasets available for public use on dedicated open data portals. The production of novel, positive and creative uses of this data increases the likelihood of greater support and investment in open data programs. But, not only are such use-cases rare, use cases that increase the profile of open data in broader public discourse tend to arise when there are problems or issues arise around data availability, quality or security. However, in an environment where maintaining transparency of public sector operations, there is a trend for government workers to employ flexible and selective practices in the day-to-day running of open data programs and initiatives. While it is not our intention to mark certain open data practices as questionable or less suited than others, it is our intention in doing this research to uncover the range of operational and ideological positions on open data among open data workers themselves.
2014
This article describes the growth of open data, open government and the means for transparency and accountability, but aims to reflect on the bottlenecks and actual practicality of opening data to the public domain by two governmental bodies. The Municiaplity of The Hague and The Province of South-Holland of The Netherlands are part of two research programmes called ‘Government of the Future’, whose main goals are to explore and establish knowledge on societal innovation by new applications and possibilities of long term effects of ICT’s in the public sector. Part of these programmes are the themes of transparency and open data, which are viewed from the somewhat pragmatic and operational side of its applicability. The paper shows the development within the governmental bodies and captivates the ‘readiness’ for open data.
A Comparative Analysis of Open Government Data in Practices and Facing Problems
2021
Open Government Data (OGD) is the publication of data by government and public institutions on the Internet. Interestingly, after more than a decade of implementing OGD there are different practices from countries in the world, even though they have the same aims. This difference is due to differences in the culture of openness, the level of openness, and the level of state confidence in opening data. This research is a qualitative research with a constructivist approach through descriptive analysis with comparisons of several countries. Based on the results of the analysis and discussion, it can be concluded that the implementation of OGD is carried out in many countries as part of efforts to fulfill data openness in the information age. Data structuring is made with a scheme that allows the government to choose which data can be published and which cannot. The roadmap for OGD activities is gradually becoming more comprehensive. Clarity of objectives is needed to create a roadmap that is effective in implementing OGD. The security of personal data is an important thing that must be guaranteed by the government. The strategy to build OGD must be carried out in one entity that is authorized to manage data.
Open Government Data: Initiatives, Challenges, and Myths
Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), 2021
The study has been carried out to identify the open data initiatives taken by different governments. The study also incorporated the benefits and challenges and myths of open data applications. It is a qualitative study based on the review of already published literature. Literature was searched from scholarly databases by using multiple keywords. Articles were selected based on relevance to the topic. The UK, US, Maldova, Pakistan, and Fingal Country Catalog cases have been elaborated. The challenges include technical, legal, organizational, managerial, financial, methodological, and conceptual issues. The myths of open data include; 1) All information should be unrestrictedly publicized, 2) It is a matter of merely publishing public data, 3) Every constituent can make use of open data, 4) Open data will result in open government. It will help report already taken initiatives and encountered challenges to better tackle initiatives taken by novice organizations. The organizations planning to adopt linked and open data technologies can overview issues and challenges and benefit from the best practices. This study is one of its kind as assembling open data technologies based on evidence from the literature is not presented before the current study.
As a field of practice and research that is fast-growing and a locus for much attention and activity, open government data (OGD) has attracted stakeholders froma variety of origins. They bring with thema variety ofmeanings for OGD. The purpose of this paper is to show how the different stakeholders and their different perspectives on OGD can be analyzed in a given context. Taking Chile as an OGD exemplar, stakeholder analysis is used to identify and categorize stakeholder groups in terms of their relative power and interest as either primary (in this case, politicians, public officials, public sector practitioners, international organizations) or secondary (civil society activists, funding donors, ICT providers, academics). Stakeholder groups sometimes associated with OGD but absent from significant involvement in Chile – such as private sector- and citizen-users – are also identified. Four different perspectives on open government data – bureaucratic, political, technological, and economic – are identified from a literature review. Template analysis is used to analyze text – OGD-related reports, conference presentations, and interviews in Chile – in terms of those perspectives. This shows bureaucratic and political perspectives to be more dominant than the other two, and also some presence for a politico-economic perspective not identified from the original literature review. The information value chain is used to identify a “missingmiddle” in current Chilean OGD perspectives: a lack of connection between a reality of data provision and an aspiration of developmental results. This pattern of perspectives can be explained by the capacities and interests of key stakeholders, with those in turn being shaped by Chile's history, politics, and institutions. Overall, stakeholder analysis and perspectives analysis are shown from this case to be workable techniques for OGD that add value by exposing the identity, power, motivations, and worldview of key actors. They provide a necessary foundation of knowledge for both researchers and practitioners who need to understand the different meanings of OGD in any particular context.
The barriers to the opening of government data in the UK: A view from the bottom
Information Polity
This paper explores some of the key barriers to Open Government Data (OGD) that responsible civil servants in the UK face as they try to comply with the UK-led OGD initiative. Empirically, we provide a quantitative analysis of the resources published on the government's central OGD portal, data.gov.uk, and a unique insight into the publishing of OGD in the UK based on 22 interviews with responsible individuals at the operational level of publishing OGD. Our findings reveal that while the barriers to open government information have been substantially reduced, the barriers to open government data persist. Even the most enthusiastic responsible individuals face considerable obstacles in publishing OGD. Further, a key barrier to OGD in the UK is its impression management strategy based on its informational rather than data orientation. Due to the UK's pioneering position in the OGD initiative, these findings are relevant to understanding and improving OGD programmes at local, national and international levels. The findings may, subsequently, lead to evidence-based strategies and policies.
The story of the sixth myth of open data and open government
Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 2015
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe a local government effort to realise an open government agenda. This is done using a storytelling approach. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data are based on a case study. The authors participated in, as well as followed, the process of realising an open government agenda on a local level, where citizens were invited to use open public data as the basis for developing apps and external Web solutions. Based on an interpretative tradition, they chose storytelling as a way to scrutinise the competition process. In this paper, they present a story about the competition process using the story elements put forward by Kendall and Kendall (2012). Findings – The research builds on existing research by proposing the myth that the “public” wants to make use of open data. The authors provide empirical insights into the challenge of gaining benefits from open public data. In particular, they illustrate the difficulties in getting citize...
Open Data, Democracy and Public Sector Reform
Governments are increasingly making their data available online in standard formats and under licenses that permit the free re-use of data. The justifications advanced for this include claims regarding the economic potential of open government data (OGD), the potential for OGD to promote transparency and accountability of government and the role of OGD in supporting the reform and reshaping of public services. This paper takes a pragmatic mixed-methods approach to exploring uses of data from the UK national open government data portal, data.gov.uk, and identifies how the emerging practices of OGD use are developing. It sets out five ‘processes’ of data use, and describes a series of embedded cases of education OGD use, and use of public-spending OGD. Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data it presents an outline account of the motivations driving different individuals to engage with open government data, and it identifies a range of connections between open government data use of processes of civic change. It argues that a “data for developers” narrative that assumes OGD use will primarily be mediated by technology developers is misplaced, and that whilst innovation-based routes to OGD-driven public sector reform are evident, the relationship between OGD and democracy is less clear. As strategic research it highlights a number of emerging policy issues for developing OGD provision and use, and makes a contribution towards theoretical understandings of OGD use in practice.